As Domain Investors we tend to be very focused on .com – and with good reason. If you are going to invest in a domain name a .com will definitely have the most value when you are looking to re-sell the domain. There are a million different price tables comparing the .com re-sale value to that of a .net, .org etc. and oftentimes these second-tier TLD’s don’t even command 1/3rd the price of their corresponding .com.
But what if you don’t want to re-sell your domain? You might be thinking – okay, he’s finally lost it – what does he mean don’t want to re-sell – that’s what domain investing is all about…right? Wrong. Yes – buying and selling domain names is an essential part of the domain investing process, but you can have a domain investment that you never plan to sell. You can have a domain name that generates a consistent monthly income which for many people might be more important than one lump sum.
If you don’t plan to sell a domain then you can focus on the keywords in the name rather than the TLD! This is because Google is TLD agnostic and will not rank a .com above a .net or a .org just because it’s a .com! Instead Google ranks sites based on how relevant they think the site is to the given search query. For example – when I bought Domainvestors.tv I never once thought about re-selling this name – instead I wanted to build a brand with the word “Domainvestors” and a TLD that represents my interest and focus on video. Search for my brand on Google – “Domainvestors” and you’ll see the entire first page is all me! Sure I could get the same results with a .com but I’m not trying to re-sell the name and the .tv TLD is actually more relevant!
Now for the title of this post – building a brand on .net. Perhaps the most famous person to build a brand on the .net TLD is ProBlogger. Darren built his blog on ProBlogger.net and later acquired the .com version of this name. He has been in the #1 slot on Google when you search for “Pro Blogger” for a long time now and he runs one of the most successful blogs out there.
This week Darren announced the launch of ProBlogger.com and guess what – it’s a different site! As a Domainer our first instinct would be to buy the .com to forward this traffic or better structure the brand on a .com – the king of TLD’s. Darren instead is thinking outside of the box here and is actually using Com to mean “Community”. He has put a brand-new forum focused on Blogging on ProBlogger.com.
Let’s be clear here – I’m not saying you should stop buying .com domains or that other TLD’s will eclipse .com in pricing. What I am saying is that you can build a brand without a .com. At the end of the day ranking well in search engines should be your primary goal and you don’t need a .com to do this!
Share your thoughts! Comment and let your voice be heard!
Type in ‘generic domains” into Google and see who ranks higher in the organic listings (However, the .com registrant is running an Adwords campaign).